The Biggest Myths Behind The Gender Pay Gap

Men continue to be paid more than women in too many workplaces. The reasons are complex. But a meaningful discussion on the gender pay gap can often get derailed by myths that seek to justify and explain away the existence of the gap. Here are some of these often cited myths:

Myth 1: Men and women are paid equally for equal work

A recent survey by Glassdoor found that 70 per cent of adults in seven countries including the UK, Canada and the US believe that men and women are paid equally for equal work.

The survey findings underline a pervasive belief that the pay gap only exists because women often congregate in lower-paying jobs, occupy less senior positions or are more likely to work part-time. The assumption is that when all these are factored in, there is no discernible pay gap.

Fact: According to research by the Chartered Management Institute, the average female manager gets paid £11,606 less each year than her male counterpart. In the UK tech industry, a survey shows women are consistently paid less than their male counterparts in all roles from software engineering to data analytics.

BBC presenter Samira Ahmed was paid £440 per episode for hosting the Points of View programme. Her co-host, Jeremy Vine was paid £3,000 an episode. Carrie Gracie, BBC’s first China editor, found that she was paid substantially less than her North American and Middle Eastern male counterparts.

This pattern is not unique to the BBC. But the BBC has been in the limelight for unequal pay because its female employees have had the opportunity to discover the pay of their male counterparts (the BBC is compelled by the Royal Charter to publish details of salaries over £150,000). If only other companies were not protected by the current lack of pay transparency, more such cases could be coming to light.

Myth 2: Women choose to work in industries that pay less

This is an often cited reason why the gender gap still exists. Women for some reason are genetically-engineered to choose jobs with low pay and don’t put themselves forward for senior positions.

Fact: Yes, females dominate minimum-wage jobs and less lucrative industries such as the caring and clerical industries. But how much of this is a choice? There is a whole spectrum of systemic causes behind this from gendered societal norms to hostile work environments that discourage diversity.

The solution seems apparent - let’s encourage more females into higher-paying industries such as engineering or STEM.

But evidence shows that women don’t follow low pay. It is low pay that actually follows women. For example, teaching was a very prestigious and well-paid profession when it was primarily dominated by males. But as more and more women joined the field, salaries decreased.

Nathan Ensmeger, author of The Computer Boys Take Over and Ariane Hegewish, Programme Director of the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, cite a similar example. Computer programming used to be considered “women’s work,” and was lowly paid until the 60s and 70s with more men joining the industry. At which point, the prestige and salaries of that sector shot up.

Myth 3: In the larger scheme of things, a pay gap is insignificant

Earning £400 less than your male colleagues monthly is insignificant.

Fact: It adds up. Earning £400 less each month adds up to £4,800 each year. This has a knock-on effect on pensions, savings and your mortgage potential. Your future earnings are also impacted considering how many companies base their new employees’ pay on their current salary.

Hired’s UK Tech Workplace Equality Report reports that women start off their careers earning £5,000 less than their male equivalents but the gap increases to nearly £8,170 less at the latter end of their careers.

This has larger societal consequences. Women tend to outlive men and are more likely to face pension poverty. Women are also more likely to head single-parent families and are responsible for children and the elderly as compared to men. So their lower earning power has implications not just for themselves but for larger sections of society such as children and the elderly.